SCMP-Junta feels heat from roadside

[hlaing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

South China Morning Post
Friday  August 14  1998

Burma 
Junta feels heat from roadside stand-off 

REUTERS in Rangoon 
The military rulers faced pressure from inside and outside the country
yesterday as a roadside stand-off between opposition leader Aung San Suu
Kyi and guards went into a second day.
The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner, leader of the National League for
Democracy (NLD) party, and two drivers were still in a van on a small
wooden bridge over a creek near Anyarsu, 32km west of the capital, sources
said.
The four were stopped by police on Wednesday on their way to see supporters
in Pathein, 190km west of Rangoon. The trip was a repeat of a visit in late
July that led to a six-day stand-off.
Independent witnesses reported tight security in the area but said they
could not get close enough to the bridge to see if Ms Aung San Suu Kyi and
her companions were in the vehicle.
One unconfirmed report said the vehicle had been moved off the road.
International pressure on the ruling military was stepped up yesterday as a
US lawmaker headed for Asia to try to free 18 foreign activists detained in
Rangoon on Sunday for distributing pro-democracy leaflets.
New Jersey Republican Representative Chris Smith, chairman of the House
Sub-Committee on International Operations and Human Rights, flew to Bangkok
vowing to "make every effort" to get into Burma and help secure their
release.
"The purpose of my trip is to verify the safety and help secure the release
of all 18 detainees," he said.
Burma has not said if it will prosecute the detainees - six Americans, an
Australian, three Thais, three Malaysians, three Indonesians and two
Filipinos - or deport them.
Government-run newspapers have accused the activists of plotting to
destabilise the country and said the authorities would take "necessary
actions against them".
The Government says the legal process is being prolonged as few of the
activists are fully co-operating.
Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan said Thailand would not press Burma to
release the detainees because it did not interfere in the affairs of other
sovereign countries.
He gave his moral support to the detainees, saying: "But as a democratic
country we also praise and support anyone who acts in favour of democracy
and human rights."
The Burmese authorities have stepped up action against the NLD since it set
an ultimatum in June for the Government to convene a parliament by August
21 of members elected at polls in 1990.
This is the fourth time Ms Aung San Suu Kyi has tried to visit supporters
in recent weeks.
?Burma has rebuffed a request by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to receive
a special emissary to discuss "current developments," a UN spokesman said.